Dossier: BMC's secret weapon is that it allows clients to closely integrate their Web- and enterprise-monitoring systems.

With $1.3 billion in annual revenues, BMC's core strength is its software to monitor and manage enterprise systems, applications and databases. For over a year now, it's been offering products to monitor Web applications and sites as well with the launch of products such as SiteAngel and GuardianAngel.

Online brokerage Ameritrade has been using BMC products for about three years to manage and monitor an infrastructure that extends beyond 1,000 servers. It uses the company's Patrol enterprise management system, as well as its Perform and Predict modules to determine future requirements. Chief Technology Architect Danny Gornell says BMC provided vital tools to manage his company's explosive growth in the late '90sand, more recently, as stock trading slowed and he's had to get more out of his technology resources.

As a business partner, Gornell gives BMC a high rating, but when it comes to measuring and monitoring Ameritrade's Web site operations, the company has stuck with software from Keynote Systems. "We've looked at (BMC's SiteAngel) and it seems pretty solid, but we're happy with what we have," he says.

Still, BMC has an advantage in winning a bigger share of the market because companies like the idea of being able to closely integrate their Web measurement and performance systems with their enterprise monitoring systems. Wayne State University, in Detroit, made that choice. The university decided about two years ago to install both BMC's Patrol enterprise manager and SiteAngel. Steve Adamczyk, director of service assurance, says the software has been useful in helping his team decide when to upgrade or consolidate servers and what size or configuration of server to purchase.

Teranet, a Toronto company that offers a variety of Web-based services on behalf of Canadian government customers, says it relies heavily on BMC's products to keep its administration head count low. It has been struggling for several months to resolve a conflict between its Windows operating environment and Patrol. George Demeester, Teranet's technical architect, was still trying to resolve the problem when interviewed in October.

Contributing EditorMel Duvall is a veteran business and technology journalist, having written for a variety of daily newspapers and magazines for 17 years. Most recently he was the Business Commerce Editor for Interactive Week, and previously served as a senior business writer for The Financial Post.